SPOILER ALERT! This story includes details from the finale of Prime Target on Apple.
One of the highlights of Apple’s Prime Target has been the welcome addition of Martha Plimpton as Jane Torres, an NSA queen who heads of a group of spies who surveil mathematicians all over the globe. Her portrayal of the villainous figure who ends up double-crossing her young charge so she can get her hooks into Leo Woodall’s Edward Brooks has made the twisty series a little less preposterous and a lot more fun.
Here, the veteran actress last seen in The Regime and forever missed as Patty Nyholm on The Good Wife talks about the drama’s finale, what viewers should expect will happen to Jane, and why she thinks the show has resonated so much with viewers.
DEADLINE: Martha, were you the token American in this British production from New Regency and Scott Free Prods?
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MARTHA PLIMPTON: The role of Jane Torres was written for an American. I mean, it is about the NSA, which is obviously American. We’ve got wonderful actors doing American accents very well.
DEADLINE: Did you feel a need to understand anything about prime numbers before taking this job?
PLIMPTON: Hell no. I failed algebra three times. In high school, they finally had to put me in a class called Math as a Human Endeavor, where we learned how to balance checkbooks. This is when we had checkbooks. It was for all the complete dolts who could not deal with math on any level. So this goes right over my head.
DEADLINE: Did you happen to ask if math professors, of all people, have ever been surveilled in the past?
PLIMPTON: No, I didn’t ask that, which I probably should have now. But I’m sure that some certainly have. I’m sure that there are many mathematicians working in quantum physics or the like who are surveilled. I would not be surprised by that at all.
DEADLINE: So I went back and forth on whether Jane is a bad person. I mean, she ended up being right at the end when she said that Ed Brooks would become a fugitive. So which is it?
PLIMPTON: Oh, well, you can’t ask me that because of course I’m going to say no! I mean, she’s a professional who has risen in the ranks to this position, obviously, because she’s good at her job. And I think that very often you have to do things that seem wrong to the outsider to get the outcome that you want in the end. And I think that’s the position of pretty much anyone in any sort of covert line of work. I don’t know. The NSA in reality is different than it is in our show. I mean, obviously the NSA doesn’t have field offices, although who knows now with this administration. I know all bets are off. But I think most people who work in this area will tell you that they are serving their country and their country comes first, and that they have to do a lot of things that maybe the average person thinks are shady, are a little wrong. But if you’re playing somebody like that, you can’t judge her. You have to agree with her. I mean, you have to empathize with it. It’s like Jane Fonda was saying in her speech at the SAG Awards, that an actor’s job is to empathize with the people they’re playing. So it’s like that.
DEADLINE: So should we assume that Jane, after the finale, is being skirted off to prison?
PLIMPTON: I don’t know if we should make those assumptions. I mean, she might be more useful out of prison than in, but who knows? Look, she might even go on the run.
DEADLINE: There’s been an interesting surge of political thrillers, including this one, that come with quite a bit of skepticism about how government functions. I was wondering, were you thinking to yourself, oh man, that kind of distrust really resonates right now with audiences?
PLIMPTON: I think with shows like ours, I don’t think there was ever a time when people trusted the government with secrets. Look at any spy movie ever. Never trust the people in charge. That’s why we have spy shows and spy movies. It’s because we have an inherent distrust of these institutions, rightly or wrongly, sometimes both at the same time. But I can’t think of a moment in history where we haven’t had some kind of distrust or suspected our government of running these kinds of covert operations. I mean, they’ve been doing it for generations. Right now, our perception may be being slightly more acute or slightly different. Personally, I don’t think this administration is capable of running a covert operation successfully. They’re dismantling our government right before our eyes. You think they could keep some of it a secret? I don’t trust this government to do anything well. But that’s a completely different story from our show.
DEADLINE: So this feels like it could go for another season. Have you heard anything?
PLIMPTON: I have no idea. I haven’t heard anything. I mean, it was certainly a blast, and it resolves rather nicely, but who knows if they want to bring it back. People are enjoying it, and I’m really glad about that. I think it’s a really wonderful and gratifying thing to know that even during these horrific, chaotic times that people can get some enjoyment and entertainment out of something like this. It makes me very happy.